Operation Merkur

Battle of Crete
Part of the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II
German paratroopers (Fallschirmjäger) landing on Crete, May 1941
Date 20 May – 1 June 1941 (13 days) Location Crete, Greece Result Axis victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  Greece  Australia  New Zealand	Germany  Italy
Commanders and leaders
Bernard C. Freyberg	Kurt Student
Strength
United Kingdom: 15,000 Greece: 11,451 Australia: 7,100 New Zealand: 6,700 Total: 40,000–61,800 (10,000 without fighting capacity)	Germany: 14,000 paratroopers 15,000 mountain troopers (together 29,000 in Greece, but only 22,040 could be transported to the island) 280 bombers 150 dive bombers 180 fighters 500 transports 80 troop gliders Italy: 2,700
Casualties and losses
4,123 dead unknown wounded 17,479 captured 4 cruisers sunk 6 destroyers sunk 1 aircraft carrier 2 battleships damaged 4 cruisers damaged 2 destroyers damaged 1 submarine damaged	1,915 dead 1,759 missing 2,000 wounded 284 Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed or written off and several hundred damaged 1 Italian destroyer damaged 1 Italian torpedo boat damaged
Over 500 Greek civilians executed by Axis soldiers

The Battle of Crete (German: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, Greek: Μάχη της Κρήτης, also Unternehmen Merkur, Operation Mercury) was fought during World War II on the Greek island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when Nazi Germany began an airborne invasion of Crete. Greek forces and other Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island. After one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered heavy casualties and the Allied troops were confident that they would defeat the invasion. The next day, through communication failures, Allied tactical hesitation and German offensive operations, Maleme airfield in western Crete fell, enabling the Germans to land reinforcements and overwhelm the defensive positions on the north of the island. Allied forces withdrew to the south coast. Over half were evacuated by the British Royal Navy; the remainder surrendered or joined the Cretan resistance.

The Battle of Crete was the first occasion where Fallschirmjäger (German paratroops) were used en masse, the first mainly airborne invasion in military history, the first time the Allies made significant use of intelligence from the decrypted German messages from the Enigma machine and the first time German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population. Due to the number of casualties and the belief that airborne forces no longer had the advantage of surprise Adolf Hitler became reluctant to authorise large airborne operations, preferring instead to employ paratroopers as ground troops. In contrast, the Allies were impressed by the potential of paratroopers and started to form airborne-assault and airfield-defence regiments.

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Wikipedia